The Stars Come Out; the Fragrant Shadows Fall

The Stars Come Out; the Fragrant Shadows Fall

Sonnet

By CS Lewis

Written in 1919

The stars come out; the fragrant shadows fall

About a dreaming garden still and sweet,

I hear the unseen bats above me bleat

Among the ghostly moths their hunting call,

And twinkling glow-worms all about me crawl.

Now for a chamber dim, a pillow meet

For slumbers deep as death, a faultless sheet,

Cool, white and smooth. So may I reach the hall

With poppies strewn where sleep that is so dear

With magic sponge can wipe away an hour

Or twelve and make them naught. Why not a year,

Why could a man not loiter in that bower

Until a thousand painless cycles wore,

And then--what if it held him evermore?

Answer the questions using complete sentences

  1. What are the theme or themes of this poem and why?
  1. What two images from the poem do you like the best and why?
  1. How well did CS Lewis use the structure and rhyme scheme of the sonnet to make his points and why?
  1. Which poem is the better example of a sonnet to you and why? This is to be a 3 paragraph response on a separate piece of binder paper. You need to have 3 reasons why one sonnet is better than the other one.

What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why

(Sonnet XLIII)

By: Edna St. Vincent Millay

What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,

I have forgotten, and what arms have lain

Under my head till morning; but the rain

Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh

Upon the glass and listen for reply,

And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain

For unremembered lads that not again

Will turn to me at midnight with a cry.

Thus in winter stands the lonely tree,

Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,

Yet knows its boughs more silent than before:

I cannot say what loves have come and gone,

I only know that summer sang in me

A little while, that in me sings no more.

Answer the following questions on a separate piece of paper

  1. What is the poet talking about in this poem? Use at least two examples from the sonnet.
  1. Did you like the way the poem rhymed? Why?
  1. Who are the ghosts in line 4 referring to in this poem?
  1. In lines nine through eleven Millay writes:

“Thus in winter stands the lonely tree,

Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,

Yet knows its boughs more silent than before:”

What do you think she is talking about in these three lines and why? Is she talking only about a tree and birds or is there more going on in her poem?

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